When pressed, Elise Coash can identify when she made her transformation from gifted volleyball player to machine.
The Aptos High senior noticed the change midway through her junior season, shortly after she committed to play for UC Irvine, an NCAA Division I team. It was as though her brain had mapped out a new program to help her deal the numerous responsibilities that come with the setter position.
“Sometimes I will turn into quick analysis mode for a few seconds and then move on. It took me a while to build that up, but it has helped me a lot,” Coash said. “I realized I can do that, and it will help me to not dwell on the past but figure out what needs to be fixed.”
Coash so excelled at her inner data analysis that she helped engineer one of the most successful Mariners seasons in almost a decade. Aptos (22-9, 14-0) swept the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League and then paired its regular-season title with the SCCAL Tournament title for the first time since 2009. For her efforts, league coaches fittingly named her the SCCAL’s Most Valuable Player.
First-year coach Ashley Tennant also collected the Coach of the Year award for Aptos, while Mariners junior opposite Maddi Smith and sophomore outside hitter Jillian Rodriguez joined Coash on the first-team roster.
Soquel outside hitter Maggie Walters, a junior, earned Player of the Year recognition.
In addition to overpowering the SCCAL, Coash nearly led Aptos to Central Coast Section Division III dominance. The Mariners fell to first-time champion Burlingame in the section title match. Even in the loss, Coash looked impressive, helping rally Aptos out of several holes and force the match to five sets.
This season, the 5-foot-9 Coash led the Mariners in four of five main statistical categories: blocks (56), aces (81), digs (362) and, of course, assists (1,023). Though she usually played setter, she excelled at whatever position she filled.
“She’s just such a gamer,” Harbor coach Matt Schutz said of Coash. “When they played us, she played middle blocker as well as set. On her own, she just destroyed us. She’s just so good. We thought we had good chance, we had some good middles, and she just owned us. She just knows how to play hard, which impressive.”
Coash didn’t just perform a systems update and improve overnight. She’s been recognized as a talent since her freshman year, when she was named SCCAL Freshman of the Year. As a sophomore, she was named the first-team setter, taking second in the position only to Soquel’s senior setter and league MVP Ali Walters. Since she flipped the switch as a junior, though, she has collected two straight MVP awards.
“I’m definitely proud of myself for achieving that,” Coash said. “For me, I’m focused on improving and really thinking about what I can do to benefit the team. I think the awards are a product of that.”
Though she only has been at the Mariners’ helm for a season, Tennant, who also works as program director for the Main Beach Volleyball Club, has been impressed with Coash’s ability to juggle all the responsibilities placed on a setter. That includes running the offense, driving communication, motivating teammates, speaking to the press and basically serving as the team’s mainframe.
“There’s a competitiveness and seriousness that she brings to the team, but at the same time she is goofy and light hearted and really cares about all the girls on the team,” Tennant said. “Just having a leader with a good balance of those two things, … to be able to achieve that kind of rapport at the high school level is a huge help and contributed to our success this season.”
Coash credited Tennant for much of the team’s success, however. More than anything, she said, the coach gave the players the confidence they needed to overcome obstacles.
“She never gave up on us,” Coash said. “In the league championship game, when we were down in the fifth set, she said, ‘You guys can do this. I believe in you guys. You have come back from being down before.’ Moments like that really helped us win key sets that helped us to go on to win key matches. We had that occur multiple times where she filled us with confidence when we were down. I think that helped in the long run.”
Harbor finished third in the league and put three players on the first team: senior outside Jordyn Skucius, junior setter Pearl Biddle and sophomore middle Sierra Laird. The rest of the team includes Santa Cruz libero Marina Crawford, a junior, and Scotts Valley outside hitter Samantha Boyle, a senior.
Schutz pointed out that of the seven first-team selections and two special awards for players, only three of them went to seniors.
“It was a good year overall for Santa Cruz volleyball. It was fun to see everyone improve,” he said. “A lot of that group is young, there’s not ton of seniors, so next year’s going to be fun as well.”
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
